women's rights

One hundred years ago, three women took a cross-country road trip from San Francisco to Washington DC to collect half a million signatures demanding passage of a Constitutional Amendment giving women the right to vote.

Maine-based author Anne Gass is recreating that historic trip and blogging about it along the way.

A new art project that's made a stop in Michigan is trying to empower women and value girls by recognizing their potential. Girl Noticed has a message and is stating in ten-foot-tall terms.

Watching someone sketch is interesting. Watching someone sketch a mural on a wall is fascinating because of the scale. But, there’s a problem when you do a mural on an outdoor brick wall using charcoal and chalk. It’s going to weather away. It will eventually fade to nothing.

And the artist I'm watching says that’s part of the message.

“We go through our lives feeling invisible a lot of times, feeling unnoticed, or feeling like we’re noticed for the wrong reasons,” Lori Pratico said as she stepped down from the ladder.

She says she wants people to re-think what they notice about women before the chance fades away and they miss the best part of someone.

The Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Division (CVED) of the Michigan State Police has launched a new state initiative to involve the trucking industry in its fight against human trafficking.

Captain Michael Krumm, commander of the CVED, said a lot of human trafficking activity takes place in truck stops and rest areas. So "as the eyes and ears of the nation's highways," the trucking industry is in a good position to help.

Thanks to a new package of laws that took effect last week, Michigan has a tougher new approach to human trafficking and the sex trade.

Bridgette Carr, a University of Michigan law professor, served on the state task force whose human trafficking report helped guide the Legislature as it crafted the new law, which has garnered lots of praise.

We often talk about the U.S. as being the land of opportunity. This is the country where you can fulfill your dreams; that is certainly the view of America from many other countries. But is that view justified?

Here in Michigan, one in four kids lives in poverty. And are girls in Michigan really seen as equals to boys?

We may say, of course they are. But does that belief holdup to close scrutiny?

The BBC's Ros Atkins wanted to find out if there is anyplace in the world that girls and women are treated the same as boys and men.

He has produced a special hour-long documentary tracing the lives of four girls in four countries. It's called "All That Stands in the Way".

We get Atkins' perspective on this, and we bring in Dustin Dwyer from Michigan Radio's State of Opportunity project to look at how we talk about the American dream as this big grand idea – which may not work out that way in reality.

Twenty eight of Michigan's top 100 public companies have no women as directors, executive officers, or in the ranks of the five highest-paid employees. Even among companies with women in top positions, the numbers are small, and the rate of change glacial.

That's according to a report recently released by the Inforum Center for Leadership in Michigan. The report was co-authored by two officers of Inforum and two faculty members at Wayne State University's School of Business Administration.

Adrian College has agreed to changes after federal investigators found the small, liberal arts school has discriminated against female student athletes. The Detroit Free Press reports Saturday that the U.S. Department of Education cited the southern Michigan school for 11 violations of gender-equity rules.

Among the changes the school must make: add at least one more women's sport, build a women's locker room in its multipurpose stadium and increase pay for coaches of women's sports.

School spokeswoman Jennifer Compton says the school "has maintained the highest commitment to equality and respect for gender equity" during its 152-year history. She says the college believes it offers "a quality higher educational experience to all students."

The agreement caps a three-year investigation into Title IX violations at the school.

On the first International Women’s Day in 1911, thousands petitioned for women’s rights to vote and end discrimination in the workplace. Now it’s a mix. Participants hope to close the remaining gaps where they exist and celebrate achievements women have made in the last century.

Mandy Keller Rodriquez was one of dozens who participated at a rally in downtown Grand Rapids.

“We might feel equal or be okay here, in this little portion in Grand Rapids. I’m not saying we are but – with this being an international event we’re saying we know that there are women out there that don’t have it as good as we do or have the voice that we do.”

Ruth Stein says obviously women in the U.S. have made huge progress. But she points out many inequalities still exist.

“As long as mothers have a harder time getting hired, as long as women don’t get paid as much, and long as that is seen as something as a women’s problem and not as a man’s problem, or a family’s problem – then there’s a measure of inequality and we still need to be out here working for this sort of thing.”